After receiving her bachelor’s degree in recreation administration from California State University Chico, Karen applied her specialty in therapeutic recreation during ten years of work with adults and children. Her interest in occupational therapy prompted her return to school, and she earned her master’s degree in the field from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Providence Health & Services in Oregon is a not-for-profit Catholic network of hospitals, care centers, health plans, physicians, clinics, home health care and affiliated services guided by a Mission of caring that the Sisters of Providence began in the West nearly 160 years ago.